Has Modern Science Made Faith Irrelevant?

Has modern science made religious faith irrelevant and obsolete? In today’s Seven Minute Seminary video, Dr. Kent Dunnington from Biola University contests this popular claim, pointing to clear evidence to the contrary.

First, many in the scientific community persist in their religious beliefs. In 2008, President Barack Obama named Francis Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health. Francis Collins is a Christian who has written about how his faith interacts with his scientific training. Indeed, many of the fathers of modern science were devout Christians, including Isaac Newton, Sir Francis Bacon, Galileo, and Johannes Kepler.

Second, the nature of claims between the disciplines of science and religion are starkly different. One seeks to describe how the natural world works (science). The other makes ultimate claims about the meaning and purpose of life (religion). Problems arise when the two attempt to offer answers outside of the discipline, such as the New Atheism does, or certain forms of fundamentalist creationism.

Dr. Kent Dunnington, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Biola University, teaches and writes in the areas of virtue ethics and theological ethics. Other research interests include addiction and criminal justice, inspired by his experiences teaching in prison.